The present invention relates to a rigid carton of cigarettes partially openable for display.
More specifically, the present invention relates to a rigid carton of cigarettes made from a flat cardboard blank and containing a group of ten packets of cigarettes.
The end user of a carton of cigarettes is normally a retailer who simultaneously uses, and removes individual packets for sale, from a number of different open cartons (of different brands and/or types of cigarettes). The present invention relates to a carton of cigarettes usable as a display. Many cartons usable as a display have been suggested in the prior art such as in U.S. Pat. No. 5,651,497, U.S. Pat. No. 3,531,045 and GB 2,321,238. Nevertheless, the cartons disclosed in the prior art do not have the requirements for being used in the field of cigarettes. Usually the cartons of cigarettes are of the utmost quality and, at the same time, have to be produced at the highest speed possible. The cartons disclosed in the prior art, on the one side, have at least some walls made of abutting panels, which undermine the esthetical appearance and the stability of the cartons and, on the other side, are made from a blank having many portions to be glued and many folds to be done to such an extent to slow down the packaging process.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a rigid carton of cigarettes designed to permit a clear view of the type of packets contained inside, as well as troublefree withdrawal and adequate retention of the packets themselves.
According to the present invention, there is provided a rigid carton of cigarettes; the carton being parallelepiped-shaped and comprising a cup-shaped bottom container for supporting a group of packets of cigarettes, and a top lid; wherein the lid is substantially cup-shaped and connected to the bottom container along at least one preweakened tear line running along two parallel, facing vertical lateral walls, and along a vertical front wall, so as to divide each vertical wall into a respective bottom portion forming part of the container, and a respective remaining top portion forming part of the lid; each packet of cigarettes being housed inside the carton with a major lateral wall of the packet parallel to said front wall; and the preweakened tear line being located at a first height along the vertical lateral walls and dropping to a second height, lower than the first height, along the vertical front wall; said carton being formed from a flat blank; the carton being characterized in that said blank has two longitudinal bend lines, and a number of transverse bend lines defining, between said two longitudinal bend lines, a first panel corresponding to a bottom wall of the carton, a second panel corresponding to a first lateral wall of the carton, a third panel corresponding to a top wall of the carton, and a fourth panel corresponding to a second lateral wall of the carton; said fourth panel having a first wing and a second wing located on opposite sides of the fourth panel and respectively corresponding to a front wall and a rear wall of the carton; and said second and fourth panel and said first wing comprising respective portions of said preweakened tear line.